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DEKALB
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DISCUSS DISTRICT 5 SEAT
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STATE'S FIRST LADY
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The Official Legal Organ ofDeKalb County, GA. Serving East Atlanta, Avondale Estates, Brookhaven, Chamblee, Clarkston, Decatur, Doraville, Dunwoody, Lithonia, Pine Lake, Tucker and Stone Mountain.
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SECTION A: VOL. 24 NO. 38
TheChampion
ist Place
General excellence
Award Winner
Georgia Press Association
‘Better Newspaper Contest’
2007, 2009-2014
MARCH 19 - 25, 2015
500
Protestors bring attention
to man killed by police
by Andrew Cauthen
andre w@dekalb champ, com
M ore than 100 protestors of a police-
involved shooting death marched
the streets of Decatur March 11
chanting “Black lives matter” and “I am Ant
Hill.”
They were protesting the March 9
shooting death of 27-year-old Anthony Hill
of Chamblee. He was naked and unarmed
when he was shot.
Some protesters wore armbands and
headbands made of strips of purple cloth,
Hill’s favorite color. They blocked traffic
in Decatur as they marched, singing and
shouting and holding their fists in the air.
Twice they sat down in intersections, as De
catur Police looked on and directed traffic.
Hill was shot by DeKalb County Police
Officer Robert Olsen, who responded to
The Heights at Chamblee apartment com
plex around 1 p.m. on a call about a man
acting “deranged,” knocking on apartment
doors and crawling on the ground, accord
ing to Cedric Alexander, deputy chief op
erating officer for public safety.
The Georgia Bureau of Investigation
is looking into the incident to determine
whether Olsen, who is White, acted proper
ly when he fatally shot Hill, who was Black
and described himself publicly as bipolar.
Alexander said Hill, who lived at the
apartment complex, ran toward Olsen and
ignored demands to stop before the officer
shot him twice. Hill died at the scene. Al
exander said witnesses saw the officer “at
tempting to provide aid” to Hill.
In a March 11 news conference, Chris
topher Chestnut, an attorney for the vic
tim’s family, called Hill “an everyday guy
[and] someone who has served his country.”
Hill, who had no arrest record, “proba
bly had a rough day,” Chestnut said. “He was
unclothed running around an apartment
complex, but posing no threat to” anyone.
The 911 call was “a very simple call for
a prowler. There was no reason to suspect
that there was violence afoot or imminent
danger of anyone’s life or, for that matter,
property,” Chestnut said.
“Certainly we appreciate that these of
ficers put their lives on the line every day,
that this is a tough job, [and] that they
keep all of us safe,” Chestnut said. “How
ever, there are sometimes bad apples in the
bunch. And sometimes there are errors of
judgment. This clearly was a gross error in
judgment. When officers make errors in
judgment like this, they are fatal—someone
dies.”
Chestnut said the DeKalb officer did not
have a reason “sufficient to shoot a gun.”
“There should be an escalating gravity
of force employed,” Chestnut said. “We feel
like there were other options other than...
to shoot bullets—fatal bullets—into that
person’s body, especially considering it’s
the middle of the day, he’s unclothed, so
there can be no suspicion or confusion as to
whether he has weapons.”
Lethal force should be a last resort,
See Commissioners on page 15A
At least 100 protestors rallied in Decatur for Anthony Hill, a man killed
by a DeKalb County Police officer March 9. At the time of the shoot
ing, Hill, who was bipolar, was naked and unarmed. Photos by Andrew
Cauthen
64 116
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